Hard disk drive systems (HDDs) typically include one or more data storage disks and a magnetic transducing head carried by a slider to read from and write to a data track on a disk. The slider is carried by an arm assembly that includes an actuator arm and a suspension assembly, which can include a separate gimbal structure or can integrally form a gimbal. The transducing heads are typically produced by using thin film deposition techniques. In a typical process, an array of sliders are formed on a common substrate or an AlTiC wafer which is then sliced to produce bars, with a row of sliders in a side-by-side pattern on each bar. The bars are then subjected to a series of processes to form individual sliders, including lapping, cleaning, formation of air-bearing surfaces (ABS), and dicing.
Each of the multiple processing steps for forming the magnetic head sliders introduces the possibility for dust, gasified organic matter, or other contaminants to deposit and/or adhere to a surface of the slider. For example, because the lapping process and/or other processes can utilize polishing materials, a portion of these polishing materials may remain on a slider surface after the process is complete. If any of the contaminants remain on the slider surface, they can reduce the reliability of the disk drive performance and thus must be removed prior to installation of the slider in a disk drive. For this reason, magnetic head sliders are often subjected to thorough cleaning in the final manufacturing stage.
Generally, the cleaning process includes multiple steps, including a step of washing off the contaminant adhering to the magnetic head slider with use of a cleaning solution, a step of rinsing off the adhering cleaning solution with rinsing liquid, and a step of drying the rinsing liquid remaining on the slider. During this cleaning, each slider is often secured within a cavity of a tray that holds multiple sliders, wherein the tray may be used as a carrier member to transport the sliders to one or more subsequent processes. The efficiency of the cleaning process is highly dependent on the flow conditions surrounding the slider surfaces within the slider packaging. There is a continued need to provide improved systems that facilitate optimization of the reliability, effectiveness, and speed of slider cleaning processes.